Covid Is Killing Rural Americans at Twice the Rate of Urbanites

Posted on September 30, 2021 by Yves Smith

Yves here. This article points out that while Covid vaccination rates are lower in rural areas than in metro areas, it does not fully explain the much greater rural mortality rate. This article focuses on much poorer access to hospitals. Another which this piece ignores is that rural America is older. From a 2018 survey:

In the United States, 19 percent of the rural population is 65 years or older, compared with 15 percent in urban areas. Rural counties make up nearly 85 percent of the 1,104 “older-age counties”—those with more than 20 percent of their population age 65 or older.

I just came back from Bailey Island, Maine, where the median age of the year-round population is 60. And the winters are not nice!